I Mark Myself
by liztits
Summary: Miranda gets a new tattoo. Jack is impatient. Mild spoiler for LotSB, a lot of fluff. AS verse.


**I haven't been to bed. I can't stop. **

* * *

Everyone who's ever gotten a tattoo says the same thing. They're addictive.  
Jack knew that, better than most people. For a woman whose skin is more ink that than anything else, she was acutely aware of that fact.  
So it came as no surprise to her when Miranda had informed her that she'd gotten another tattoo. After the first, a small J inked on her hip, it was only a matter of time.  
What was surprising to Jack, is that Miranda wouldn't let her see it. She came home from work, told her straight away that she'd gotten another tattoo, and that she wasn't allowed to see it until later.  
So Jack waited, which isn't an easy feat for someone who is practically a pure ball of energy.  
Even Eezo avoided Jack, choosing to stay sleeping under Miranda's desk than next to the jumpy legs of his owner.  
They ate dinner, and Jack waited. They watched the news, and Jack waited. Miranda had a shower, and Jack sat patiently on their bed, waiting.  
When Miranda exited the shower, tightly wrapped in a bath robe and showing no signs of letting Jack see the new addition to her almost perfectly unmarred flesh, Jack had to say something.  
"Come on Miri, you're killing me here." She whined sinking down into the pillows.  
"Alright, alright." Miranda sat down in front of the younger woman, drawing her legs up onto the bed and crossing them. "You remember back when we were on the Normandy? Still part of the old crew?" Miranda asks, voice quieter.  
"Yeah, course I do." Jack grumbles in response, still unhappy with the way the conversation apparently isn't about the tattoo.  
"You remember when Liara took down the Shadow Broker, and Shepard asked me for help?"  
"Of course I do. Everyone does. No one could believe that Shepard chose you instead of someone stronger." Jack flexes a little. "Like me."  
"There's a reason Shepard chose me, but that's a different story." Miranda bristles a little. "Anyway, you know about the files we found, right? Those Dossiers on the crew?"  
"Yeah…" Jack asks, still not seeing what the point to this conversation is yours.  
"I read yours." Miranda starts. When Jack eyes her sceptically, she continues. "You were upset, after you read it. And I didn't know why. You wouldn't tell me, and you were worrying me, so my reaction was to snoop. I know, bad girlfriend award belongs to me, but I had to do something." Jack doesn't interrupt, wanting to see where Miranda is taking this. "You wrote a poem. It was beautiful. For the first time, I felt like I really saw who you were. Who you are. You spent so much of your energy cutting people off, keeping them away, but this, it spoke volumes."  
Miranda turned away from Jack, loosening the robe and letting it fall from her shoulders. There, written is script across Miranda's shoulder blade were the words "I hold my breath waiting."  
Without letting Jack speak, Miranda continues. "I love you. You know that. And I know that the line is sort of out of context alone, but Jack, when you leave, even if it's just to go to work, I hold my breath. When you go away on training missions with your kids, I almost suffocate. It's like I can't breathe until you're here with me, until I know you're safe, in my arms."  
"Fuck." Jack growls from behind her, surging forwards. She places a gentle kiss onto the tender skin the new tattoo in emblazoned on, before kissing up to Miranda's earlobe, whispering I love you's the entire time.

"Miri?" Jack asks later, as she wraps an arm around her girlfriends waist, pulling them closer together.  
"Mmmm?" Miranda replies sleepily.  
"Why did Shepard choose you?" Jack asks, nuzzling her shoulder a little bit.  
"Because she never told the rest of you the extent of her relationship with Liara. Only Garrus and Tali knew at all before I found out, and I found out by accident, but I don't think that Tali and Garrus really knew how Shepard felt. She needed someone who understood, so she took me."  
"How she felt?" Jack questions groggily.  
"That she loved her, silly." Miranda replies, swallowing a yawn and pressing back more firmly into Jack.  
"Like how I love you." Jack states, always more honest when she's ready to sleep.  
"Just like that."

* * *

**I saved this document as "whywhywhy"  
Also, if you didn't read Jack Shadow Broker file, or you didn't play Lair of the Shadow Broker, then the poem is as follows.  
**

_**My soul**_

_**Burns**_

_**With a fire of darkness**_

_**Quenched only in the pain**_

_**Of loneliness**_

_**I hold my breath waiting**_

_**Until spots appear black as the past**_

_**And fill my lungs up with lies of hope**_

_**I mark myself**_

_**Black and jagged**_

_**To cover the scars**_

_**That make me a monster**_

_**A warning**_

_**This is not a place of honor**_

_**No esteemed dead are buried here**_

**Totes didn't write it, wish I did cause it's beautiful, no cred taken, la la la.  
**


End file.
